Had a new one today - It’s been discovered that the loft insulation I recently had installed can cause condensation and I was eligible for a FREE loft inspection. (Hmmm… I suppose 20 years is recently in geological terms.)
I tried to reason with the guy and said to save time for both of us, what is the endpoint of the scam but he didn’t appear interested in chatting 
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Having the phone tell us the number calling us is very helpful, it allows us to simply ignore it. It also records recent numbers that called, so if I notice an undesirable one repeating itself too much I can block it, usually after checking it on the who-called website.
We had one two days ago which was our own phone number calling us.
Not really listening (who does?), SWMBO said “That’s a local number. Why aren’t you answering it?”
I said “It’s very local, it’s our number.”
So we didn’t answer it.
We knew we were not making a call.
One of those calls a couple of weeks ago was from almost the same mobile number as that of a daughter, so I made the mistake of picking up.
After hearing a few seconds of male voice I realised my mistake, but I was bored and played along. I said ‘I have several phones, which number has the problem?’
He said ‘This one.’ but no number given.
I asked him to read me the number he had called, and although he had the correct one, I said ‘Ah, that’s not one of mine. I don’t want to waste your time. Thank you for calling.’ and hung up.
Someone I know said that she waits until the scammers have made their introduction… Waits for a bit in silence and then replies, in a low, slow, sexy tone…
“…and what are YOU wearing…? “ (!!!)
She said it usually works with the scammers hanging up…
But I’ve never had the bottle to try it myself…
Don’t think I could keep a straight face… 
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I’ve noticed an uptick in ambulance chasers. Telling them that you don’t drive shuts them up quite quickly.
I gave them that line when stuck in traffic once.
Had the broadband provider call four times today until I eventually answered it. I stayed On after the initial recorded message, not pressing 1. Eventually a gentleman came On and asked how he could help. He claimed he worked for BT Openreach, who operate all broadband for providers like Virgin, Sky and Talk Talk! I had a problem that he needed to fix. Then I’m sorry to admit I blew at him.
I had one earlier this year saying l’d been involved in accident, when I told them this was a company vehicle they Hung Up ! Strange?
Putting aside the recorded message etc. if they hadn’t mentioned Virgin (which as far as I’m aware still operates/maintains/upgrades the old NTL/Blueyonder network) then it would have been a plausible explanation which could catch people out since Openreach do maintain the infastructure for those other ISPs.
Been reading through this thread, some good replies to scammers .
Another scam to watch out for is the tumble dryer / washing machine warranty expired call wanting you to renew policy.
There’s two guys on YouTube worth watching who go after these scammers, Jim Browning hacks into scam call centres and reveals what it’s like on the inside of these call centres, the other goes by the name Kitboga, this guy is fantastic at winding up the scammers using voice changing software to pretend to be an old granny, has even managed to keep scammers hanging on for 36 hours in one video series.
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James Veitch is quite entertaining when it comes to email scams.
Ah, so it is a scam. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
They knew our name and the exact washing machine type, even though I never bothered to register any of our appliances and never had any insurance policy. I wonder if they had access to my spare parts provider, it had a genuine OEM new door seal two months ago.
But they did not know the machine was 15 years old, and in that time two new door-seals, heater element, heater relay and a pair of motor brushes have totalled less than the £66 a year they wanted.
I politely told him the machine was 15 years old, not worth insuring and not to waste my time. He paused to draw breath so I hung up.
They did not ask about the newish dishwasher of the same brand.
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BT pester me with upgrade emails trying to get me to take their latest tech, for more money.
All I use from them is the connection and their server. I use my own modem and my previous router/wifi etc.
They gave up on the FTTC broadband offers at reducing cost and eventually gave it to me for free. Their modem-hub sits in its box unopened, ready to send back if I change to another provider. This gives me the freedom to move quickly to another provider so I can haggle BT down to a more reasonable price each year.
The washing machine warranty call is one to watch out for, similar story to you, they phoned my dad and went through the whole “ your warranty needs renewed “ script and when my dad pointed out the machine was 20 years old, dad says there was silence for a second or two two then a very audible sigh then hung up.
My best record for keeping a windows scammer on the phone is 45 minutes, usual script where they want to access your computer I don’t have a windows computer so just google image searched on my iPad and read back to him what he wanted to hear, he was mad when he realised I was playing him. Haven’t had too many Windows calls since.
Another thing I do is type their phone number into google as most times it will appear on one of these Check Who Called websites where comments will have been left.
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I have begun doing that recently after a spate of fake “HMRC” and other phony (see what I did there) calls.
The windows “you have a virus” call is fun, I have a MacBook so I know it’s gonna be a scam, I had one once that I messed about with, acting dumb and keeping them waiting, asking which computer, “the one upstairs or downstairs?”
He didn’t want to commit to that but finally said upstairs, funny coz I didn’t know they had altimeters.
Then we went in to the solution, he was going to fix it. I said “ok, are you coming over now or are you available one evening next week”, kept acting dumb but not too dumb. He says he’s going to do it now over the phone, so I said ok, “I’ll just lay the phone down next to it and leave you to work. “
I had been on speaker the whole time and put it down in a table while we carried on with our evening. He took about three minutes of calling out for me before he hung up.
Before I permanently turned off the ringer my wife would just hand me the phone and say “it’s for you” with a certain smile. It was the only time she would let me purposely mess with someone as she knows I’ll do it to people I’ve just met at parties if I’m drunk.
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My wife’s auntie had a nuisance caller the other day and when she started coughing and said she had Covid 19 they hung up immediately. She has actually had the virus and has been discharged from the hospital and is recovering slowly.
Didn’t realise you could catch it down the phone line and neither did the cold calling call centre staff by the sound of it !!
Calibre of some of the staff they recruit I guess 
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Just by way of a heads up, this morning had a call with recorded message informing me that my Amazon prime account would now be charged £79.99 for one year. To change this press 1 etc etc.
Now I recently started a prime account so on the surface this is a very plausible scam, but a scam it must be.
Be careful…
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It is - we get that call about once a fortnight and have never had Amazon Prime.
The clue is in the amount, ours renews @£79.00.
We get regular stuff like this, your TV licence expires 27th March. No it doesn’t, it’s 31st March. Also all such banking scams too, check your log in details etc…no!
I had the usual call regarding my “accident “ in the last 3 yrs .
I must get 6 per month , it’s ridiculous.
Away , yesterday I just played stupid with them every time he started speaking I spoke over the top of the guy …
Then I’d stop , but as soon as he started to speak I’d again talk over the top of him
This continues for 3 or 4 mins 
Until he shouts FU@K OFF at me and hangs up
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